Verdict
It ’s big and heavy , but also fantastic in so many elbow room . The Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max is a straight flagship headphone .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
The iPhone 14 Pro Max is no longer the biggest Pro - sized iPhone with the release of the 6.9 - inch iPhone 16 Pro Max , but it still represents a fantastic buy if you’re able to happen it at a discount .
The iPhone 14 Pro Max ’s combining of a prominent , gorgeous screen , telling A - series power and all the bells and whistling of iOS – aside from Apple Intelligence , of course – make for a compelling Io experience , even if it does n’t have the titanium frame or upgraded 5x telephotograph lens of new role model of Pro Max .
Two years on from its initial release , how does the iPhone 14 Pro Max hold up ? lease ’s dive in .
Screen and Design
There are two main reasons to flesh out for the Max interpretation of the iPhone 14 Pro over the regular 14 Pro , and the first of those reasons is the screen .
While the iPhone 14 Pro has a modest 6.1 - inchOLEDdisplay , the Max has a far bombastic 6.7 - inch showing . A bountiful display is , in my legal opinion , much good if you employ your phone a lot for play , content creation or consumption . television shows from Netflix or Disney , especially those fork up in HDR , look sensational on the spacious canvas and there ’s so much more blank to finger absorb in with game .
Of of course , a grown screen mean a great earpiece and here ’s where the iPhone 14 Pro Max falls down a little . The boxlike , squared - off conception suits the smaller speech sound far better – here it can make the 14 Pro Max a small cumbersome , with the knifelike edges digging into my palms . A softer lawsuit will easily fix this , but it ’s deserving acquire into account statement should you wish to use the phone without any added protection .
That is one area where a newer iPhone will serve you better , as the switch to titanium with the iPhone 15 Pro Max made for a much lighter , soft - to - hold smartphone .
The iPhone 14 Pro Max , like the12and13 Pro Maxbefore it , remains almost jewel - like in its design approach . The extremely polished ( and very fingerprint - prone ) stainless sword sides glisten in the sunlight , while the range of three colour – along with a very trashy atomic number 79 – are muted and tasteful . I in person prefer the more fun shades you ’d determine on the iPhone 14 line , but the pick here , specially the raw Deep Purple , do give off a more ‘ professional ’ vibe .
The biggest visual change this time around is the newDynamic Island . This pick up a lot of level time during the phone ’s announcement and ( guileful name aside ) it palpate like a proper tone forward for the derided notch .
Dynamic Island take the notch that ’s been present since theiPhone X , dissever it from the top bezel and adds some clever software package around it to turn it into a new little interactional area – while still shroud the array of front photographic camera andFace IDsensors .
Everything from music playback controls , to alarm from affiliated AirPods to moo battery warnings now pop up up in the Dynamic Island – but veritable notifications and subject matter , for instance , do not . This can create some confusing ocular factor if two apprisal from two different areas start up at the same time .
For the most part , the Dynamic Island is a step forward . Having euphony ascendance , or timer alerts , accessible in any app is great , and the addition of Live activity iniOS 16.1expands the functionality to third - political party apps . In a year or so , I think we ’ll really embark on to see the benefits of the change .
The relaxation of the filmdom is just as brilliant . The self-aggrandising raise is in smartness , both in HDR use and when you ’re out of doors on sunny day . This is the brightest silver screen I have used outside , with it easily combating direct ray .
I delve more into the presentation in myiPhone 14 Pro review , but it really does tick all the boxes . The unruffled adaptive 120HzProMotiondisplay ramps up and down count on what you ’re doing , and it makes everything from scrolling up and down a webpage to gaming palpate much legato than on the 60HziPhone 14 .
Apple has allowed the screen to drop to 1Hz for the 14 Pro series , enable an Always - On option that keep the screen always seeable in a darkened res publica . While some Android phones do this by only foreground certain role of the showing , ordinarily the clock , the iPhone 14 Pro Max slows the whole screen down so that it just refreshes once a second .
I ’ve been using the Always - On display for over a month now , and I both witness it very utile and a little annoying . Once it ’s enable , you have very short customisation over it at all – you ca n’t tweak the brightness levels and whatever show on the Lock Screen will be mirror . If you have a loud wallpaper , this will always be visible .
Sometimes I have bump it too shining , making the phone a misdirection when it ’s on a table . Though other times , specially when at a desk figure out , it can be handy always to see the time and other alert . you may wrick the characteristic off if it really annoys and it turns itself off when the phone is in quietus mode , so it wo n’t distract too much on a bedside table at night .
There ’s also an effect on shelling life by keeping the screen on all the time , though I noticed this far less on the Pro Max as pit to the low Pro .
Camera
The iPhone 14 Pro Max match the television camera specification of the modest Pro , so you ’re not get any benefit by plumping for the great , more expensive option .
As with previous iPhones , it ’s an prosperous , spry phone to shoot with and takes faithfully excellent pictures in all situations . The addition of auto - direction on the front camera also helps it take great selfies .
In daylight , it can be hard to blob divergence between the13 Pro Maxand the 14 Pro Max , but it does proffer more room for creative thinking with a couple of extra pro - targeted features and improve gloomy - light skills .
The iPhone 14 Pro Max tick the first fourth dimension Apple has gone beyond a 12 - megapixel detector on a phone , replacing it with a entirely new 48 - megapixel translation , For the most part , you ’ll still be roil out 12 - megapixel images , as it utilize thepixel binningtechnique Android phones like the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra use . This combines four pixels into one in the sensor , fall in you an effectual larger pixel size without resulting in huge image sizes .
you’re able to , if you want , utilise the full megapixel counting by enable theProRawmode . This will churn out bombastic ( often 80 MB or more ) double in the altogether formatting , set aside for more intricate and efficient redaction in apps like Lightroom .
After shooting with both the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max for a month , I have come to the conclusion that for the most part , I shoot at 12 megapixels as the caliber and item are excellent and it ’s just that bit quick to shoot and easier to portion out . However , having the freedom to change when I jazz there ’s a shot I will need to spend a little more time redaction and tweaking is very welcome , and can leave in some truly fantastic shots that are far beyond what I would ask from a phone .
The iPhone has long been excellent at daylight shot and that does n’t change here . Put a pellet require with the 13 Pro Max next to one from the 14 Pro Max and the differences are minimum until you zoom in , but the difference is far greater if you ’re coming from an older gimmick .
Detail in hair , plants and even the woollen strand on a jumper all are captured mostly well . Though there is certainly more processed sharpening in sealed instances than before . Smart HDR levels out dynamical reach well , treat with trickier lighting conditions with ease and consistently churning out great double with accurate colours . The bigger detector gives a more raw bokeh event too , so you’re able to get the silky blurry background with the foreground in nidus without switching to the dedicated portrait mode .
When taking pictures of people , I still prefer ikon from theGoogle Pixel 7 Pro . Google does a serious job of various peel tones and they often look a lot more natural .
It ’s in tougher conditions where these pricey phones dress themselves apart and the iPhone 14 Pro Max is excellent in broken - light situations . I ’ve ascertain it does n’t need to go into the Night Mode as often as the past few iPhones and when it does , it requires less time and light to make usable results . Photos pack at night are universally very good : particular is retain without racket , colors are a fiddling brighter without seem gaudy and skies retain the deep night sky colorize . The 12MP ultrawide camera is in effect at Nox too , offering more versatility .
There are no changes to the 12MP telephotograph camera , and while the rapid growth is on equivalence with telephone set that do n’t use a periscope arrangement , it does n’t come anywhere tight to vie with theSamsung Galaxy S22 Ultraonce you push past the 3x orbit . Apple has added a novel 2x zoom choice , which utilise the middle 12 - megapixels from the 48 - megapixel to crop in .
No major variety have been made to make the videography experience better here , yet it still maintains its booster cable as the estimable phone for capturing telecasting on the mart . Smaller tweaks include 4 K backing in the gimmicky Cinematic Mode and a raw Action Mode that steady TV if you ’re moving speedily at the expense of broken - light operation .
Performance
One of the more surprising aspect of the iPhone 14 range is the remotion of the SIM time slot all in the USA , ram drug user to alternate to eSIM . It seems like all major common carrier are supported and the operation of switching from a forcible card to a virtual one is square .
My UK review building block lark about a SIM slot like all previous iPhones , and I do n’t feel the technical school is anywhere close to being as advanced here . While Vodafone ( the web I reviewed the phone on ) abide it , others do n’t . Three , for lesson , is a popular electronic connection in the UK and currently does n’t supporteSIM .
Like the removal of the headphone jack and the tear stopple from the boxful , this feel like a change that will permeate the high - last speech sound market in the coming year .
US models benefit frommmWave 5 gibibyte , a technical school that ’s not available on any internet in the UK so is missing from these unit . UK drug user will still get 5 G , just the sub-6Ghz form .
Another US ( and Canada ) only feature of speech , at least for now , is Emergency SOS – a satellite service that ’ll let you meet emergency service even when there ’s no phone web signal . It ’s hard to judge this without trying it , but it ’ll be welcome for those search place without cellular connections . Car Crash Detection is another safe feature that ’ll alert pick out contacts if the phone detects you ’ve been in a hit ( though it does seem to have been gear up off by people on rollercoasters … ) .
Inside the phone is theA16 Bionicchipset . It is pair with 6 GB RAM and storage options ranging from 128 GB to 1 TB . If shooting a lot of RAW photo and ProRes video are snuff it to be on your to - do list , you ’ll want to choose one of the higher storage miscellanea . This chip will presently be leapfrog by the unexampled A17 Bionic , but performance is still at such a high tier that I really do n’t think that will be a trouble .
Performance is excellent – just like iPhones have been for years . There are no obvious real - world benefits of the A16 chip I could notice in my even purpose , but the focusing on the neuronic learning cores will keep AI component of the software system tight for the next brace of years . It ’s a fantastic choice for gambling , especially with the wealth of titles available on Apple Arcade and the fantastic GPU performance .
play is made better by the loudspeaker , strong Wi - Fi connectivity ( the lack ofWiFi 6Eis unpaired consider it ’s available on the new iPad Pro models ) and , as I mentioned above , the swell silver screen .
Battery Life
The iPhone 14 Pro Max might not be the best novel iPhone for battery life – that award proceed to theiPhone 14 Plus – but it ’s a phone that ’ll go the length , and comfortably outpacesAndroid earpiece .
I used the iPhone 13 Pro Max solidly for a act of calendar month after release and I loved how long it would last between charges . I would often have 30 % left after a engaged day , and there were legion instances where I could go two slower days without reach for the battery charger .
Having used the iPhone 14 Pro Max for 10 sidereal day , the assault and battery life is standardized but not quite on equation with the 13 Pro – at least with the exhibit always on . Disable that feature and the battery can match that of its predecessor .
I ’ve found that the iPhone 14 Pro Max bleed down quicker than the 13 Pro in casual use , yet in unique project , it live on longer . This is likely down to the promising screen sucking up more juice . Streaming coil video lasted around 90 hour longer on the raw model , a benefit of the more efficient scrap .
How long the iPhone 14 Pro Max will last for you will really depend on how hard you push it , and what undertaking you do with it . If you lower the brightness , limit some of the screen feature and head off intensive task like high - end gambling then it ’s a two - day phone . flow lots of HDR television , shoot altogether photograph and hammer 5 G and you ’ll be juicing up before you go to bottom .
There are myriad agency to charge the iPhone 14 Pro Max . MagSafe and Qi are the two wireless solutions , while the Lightning port render the wired option . It looks like this will be the final iPhone multiplication of the onetime , slow port with USB - C probable to take its place in 2023 on the iPhone 15 serial .
I have n’t found charge to be any faster this time around , with a 50 % charge in rough 30 minutes ( just as Apple title ) and a full 0 - 100 % take between 92 and 100 minutes . This twin my tests with the 13 Pro Max .
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Should you buy it?
The 6.7 - inch OLED panel is peachy . It ’s big , has a fast refresh charge per unit and can get very ( very ) bright
While I love the matt side and box-shaped looking at of the smaller Pro , it ’s quite uncomfortable at this tumid size .
Final Thoughts
It ’s no longer the best iPhone in the food market , but the iPhone 14 Pro Max stay a powerful , big - CRT screen gadget with long barrage fire life-time and fantastic cameras , especially if you’re able to get the earphone at a discount .
There are some simple changes that could make it even better , though . The boxy , flat - butt against design does n’t beseem the large size of it and the Lightning port feels antiquated for a advanced telephone – both issue that were fixed with the subsequent iPhone 15 Pro Max .
fresh models of Pro Max also bid upgrade telephotograph performance from a boosted 5x sensor , more power under the hood and , of course , Apple Intelligence . But , if you could do without the very recent and cracking in tech , the iPhone 14 Pro Max remains a alluring option .
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How we test
We test every mobile phone we review exhaustively . We use diligence standard run to compare features properly and we use the speech sound as our main gimmick over the reexamination geological period . We ’ll always tell you what we recover and we never , ever , accept money to review a production .
FAQs
There is no battery charger in the box , just a USB - C to Lightning overseas telegram
There are four chromaticity available : Deep Purple , Space Black , Gold and flatware
